It is well-known to provide a vehicle body roof panel having a roof opening which is selectively opened and closed by a metal or glass closure panel. Such closure panels are conventionally operated by a track assembly which moves the closure panel fore and aft between a closed position and an open position.
A preferred closure panel operating mechanism disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 3,981,531, Koral et al., issued Sept. 21, 1976, raises the closure panel vertically against a downwardly facing roof flange defining the roof opening so that a seal is vertically compressed between the closure panel and the flange to provide a watertight occupant compartment.
Another type of prior art sunroof provides a power driven closure panel operating mechanism which pivotally raises the rear portion of the closure panel from the closed position to a ventilator position as well as bodily moving the closure panel fore and aft between open and closed positions. A shortcoming of this prior art sliding sunroof and ventilator construction is the difficulty of providing a watertight seal between the closure panel and the roof panel edges while still permitting articulation of the closure panel between the ventilator position, the closed position, and the open position. Accordingly, a water channel and drain tubes are employed to capture and dispose of water which leaks past the interface between the closure panel and roof panel edges.
It would be desirable to provide a vehicle body sunroof construction in which a vertically compressed seal is employed for optimum water tightness and yet the sunroof closure panel can be raised and lowered above and below the roof panel as desired to establish the sunroof panel in either an angularly raised venting position, a closed position sealed to the roof panel or a longitudinally retracted open position.
U.S. patent application Ser. No. 200,924 by Joseph F. Koral et al., filed Oct. 27, 1980, (and now U.S. Pat. No. 4,342,482), provides a veicle body sunroof construction in which a carrier frame having a power driven operating mechanism providing fore and aft movement is sealed to the vehicle body roof by a vertically compressed seal. A closure panel smaller than the roof opening is hingedly mounted on the carrier frame and moved between an angularly raised ventilator position and a closed position by a manually operated toggle linkage.
The present invention provides an improvement in the sliding sunroof with ventilator of Ser. No. 200,924 by the provision of cam linkage and lost motion connection which couples the power drive mechanism with the closure panel in a manner to provide power driven pivotal movement of the closure panel between the angularly raised ventilating position and the closed position.